


Why Are You Here

by SympathyForTheBlinderDevil



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied Relationships, Past Relationship(s), Polly Shelby was a ring tailed twister back in the day, Simmering passion just below the surface
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:36:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SympathyForTheBlinderDevil/pseuds/SympathyForTheBlinderDevil
Summary: Alfie and Polly have a past that no one knows about, but it doesn’t figure into Alfie’s power strategy.
Relationships: Alfie Solomons/Polly Gray
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Why Are You Here

Polly’s high heels from Paris carried her down a winding lane in Camden Town. The narrow street ran perpendicular to the Grand Union Canal, and she could smell the oily water grow closer with every step she took. She had her driver stay back on the main road. He could maneuver her Bentley surely enough down the winding way, but she wanted to feel the air of his neighborhood around her, take the temperature of his earth beneath her feet, and listen for the beating of his heart within the red brick walls that lined her path.

Tommy had always dealt with Solomons. Tommy came up with the schemes and she did the books. That’s the way it had always been, and that was the system that had always worked.

Until now.

Tommy was in hospital with his head cracked like an eggshell. When Polly saw him last, his skin was a sickly mottled grey colour and his head was encircled by a steel halo. Tommy had crossed the wrong enemy, and the priest’s men were swift and thorough with their brand of justice. She had word that Solomons colluded with the bastards responsible for Tommy’s current state, and she couldn’t have that. Alfie owed her better than that.

Polly walked alone. She hadn’t brought any muscle with her and for good reason. John and Arthur were unaware of her visit to the Aerated Bread Company, and she threatened her driver within an inch of his life if he followed her. This was to be a strictly private conversation. Armed only with her charm and a dagger, she walked into Alfie’s place of business.

The man himself sat behind his desk: eyes closed, walking a coin across the knuckles of his left hand, and listening to the sounds of his shop. He heard Polly’s heels clack across the hardwood on the factory floor. Moments later, he heard Ollie’s questions and demands, and he laughed. It was a low chuckle from deep in his chest.

To himself, he said, “Oh you silly boy. You can’t tell Pollyanna Shelby anything.” His eyes snapped open and he shouted “Ollie! Send her in!”

Her footsteps banged out a warning as she strode into the room and stood before the man.

Alfie stroked his beard and smiled broadly. In his rapid-fire patois he greeted her, “Pollyanna Shelby Polly Elizabeth Shelby Polly Gray.”

He spread his arms widely and stared into her eyes. A grin was still plastered on his face when he cried out, “To what do I owe this honor?”

Polly’s mouth was set in an immovable line. “Don’t patronize me.”

He immediately dropped his smile and his arms. “Orright, then. Why are you here?”

“You know why I’m here,” Polly snarled. “I want answers.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, love. You know how it goes. I had an alternative offer that was much more fucking profitable.”

“So you sold Tommy out to the highest bidder? I thought that you were an honorable man.” She lowered her voice and added, “How could you do this to my blood?”

Alfie cocked his head to the side and his nostrils flared. “Since when has our past figured into the deal?” He cracked his knuckles and snorted. “And honorable? Hah! Honorable? Listen, treacle, honor ain’t got nothing to do with it. Don’t forget, I am a gangster. Just like your Tommy Boy, Just like Sabini, just like them fucking Russians, and just like the priest. Honor don’t come into the equation.”

He scoffed and grumbled, “Your blood…”

Polly was incensed. “You will make this right, Alfie.”

“Or what? Or fucking what, Polly? Hmm?”

She could see his hand going for his desk drawer so she made her move. In two steps she was at his throat with the dagger that she carried in her sleeve.

“Don’t do that, Alfie. You don’t want to bring a gun into this. Not with me.”

Her deep brown eyes bore into his and he held his breath. Their faces were inches apart. Sweat beaded on Alfie’s brow, but he leaned into her blade just a fraction. She inhaled deeply and could smell the familiar scent of Alfie’s soap. She could never forget.

“I don’t think that you want to use that knife either, Pol. I reckon that if you wanted me dead, I would already be meat for a fire.”

She kept her eyes trained on him, but her resolve wavered just a touch. That’s all he needed.

With the quickness of lightning, he snatched the dagger from her hand and stabbed it into the top of his desk.

He shouted in her face, “Your boy Tommy, yeah, he fucked up! ”

Alfie’s eyes sparkled like black diamonds as they shifted back and forth between hers. He inhaled and exhaled with enough force to move the black curls that framed Polly’s face. She made to move back and a thick bejeweled hand came up to grab her arm.

“Let me go “

“Tommy’s troubles begin and end with his tendency to punch above his weight. Am I right, Hmm? Isn’t that what you always said? Now, your Gypsy king, he has fallen down and broken his crown. Well, it serves him fucking right.”

Polly spat and wrenched her arm out of his grasp. She staggered backward, her face a mixture of hate and hurt.

Alfie pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his face.

“That’s not nice, Pollyanna.”

Her voice shook with emotion as she stared down on him. “Don’t call me that.”

For a moment her mind drifted back to a time when a smooth-faced Alfie lay with her in the basement room of the bakery where he worked. He told her all his hopes and dreams. He’d play with her hair and call her Pollyanna. So long ago they were different people. She couldn’t bear to hear him say it now. Not after he’d betrayed her family.

She trembled as she whispered, “Curse you, Alfie Solomons.” Then she turned and stalked out of his office; each step she took exploded like the report of a bullet.


End file.
